Concessional duty on excess sugar production applies where output exceeds the prior-year benchmark, without requiring production to start on 1-12-1973.

Serial No. 2 of Notification No. 189/73-C.E. was construed as requiring only that sugar produced from 1-12-1973 to 30-4-1974 exceed 110% of the corresponding period in the previous year; it did not require production to commence exactly on 1-12-1973. On that reading, a manufacturer who began production on 10-12-1973 and met the production benchmark satisfied the notification and was entitled to the concessional duty rate on the excess quantity.

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Issues: Whether the concessional rate of duty under Serial No. 2 of Notification No. 189/73-C.E. was available only if production had commenced on 1-12-1973, or whether it applied to any sugar produced during the specified period in excess of 110% of the corresponding previous year's production.

Analysis: On a plain reading of Serial No. 2, the condition was that sugar produced during the period from 1-12-1973 to 30-4-1974 must be in excess of 110% of the quantity produced during the corresponding period of the preceding year. The clause did not impose any requirement that production must have commenced exactly on 1-12-1973. Since the appellants had commenced production on 10-12-1973 and their production during the relevant period exceeded the prescribed benchmark, they satisfied the notification.

Conclusion: The appellants were entitled to the concessional rate of duty on the excess quantity of sugar produced under Serial No. 2 of Notification No. 189/73-C.E.

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